Well beyond the right-field fence at Dodger Stadium there is a small park-like clearing where, for more than 40 years, a specially commissioned 10-foot stone lantern from Japan has stood.

It was a gift, nightly lit testament to a more than half-century-old relationship between the Dodgers and Japan that predates the team's arrival in Los Angeles. Since the 1950s, the Dodgers had been the most active of proselytizers on behalf of Major League Baseball, teaching the game's fundamentals, playing goodwill tours to Japan and inviting that country's players and clubs to attend spring training camp.

So, playing out as the World Baseball Classic semifinals and final did at Dodger Stadium, Japan and South Korea used the occasion to demonstrate a pointed reversal of roles, giving the United States a tutorial in the finer points of the game. Its game.

In the two WBCs (Japan) and last Olympics (Korea) the winner has come from Asia. In all three the recipe had some hard-to-miss similarity: Pitching, defense and superbly executed small ball.

In the 2009 tournament, where Japan eliminated the U.S. team in the semis, 9-4, and then overcame Korea, 5-3, in 10 innings Monday for the title, victory was accomplished by pecking away rather than swinging from the heels. Eighty percent of Japan's hits in the tournament were singles. Yet, it outscored opponents, 50-16, by uncannily doing the so-called "little" things like hitting behind runners and taking extra bases.

It was, in many ways, an exhibition on baseball the way it once largely was played. It was a throwback to the pre-steroid age. A time before home runs overtook finesse and execution.

You could, of course, argue that the U.S. team didn't have all its stars, especially when it came to pitching, or as much preparation. Nor did it put its collective heart and passion into it. But, really, whose fault is that? Too many MLB players either disdained playing, were pressured by their teams to pass it up or didn't take it upon themselves to get in requisite playing shape.

Like international basketball, where the United States exported its game only to find itself bedeviled by other countries' abilities to shoot from outside while we relied on the dunk, baseball has seen the tables turned, too.

Only when basketball got serious, securing its best players, a commitment to continuity and coaching did it reassert a gold-medal presence. The same can happen for baseball.

We know this because Japan and Korea have showed the one-time teacher that it can work.

The only question is whether, like the stone lantern that is visible from the stands at Dodger Stadium at night, has MLB seen the light yet.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.